Tony Ng has the button in seat 7. The action folds around to David Paul Steicke in the small blind, who min-raised to 8,000. John Juanda called from the big blind.
Flop:
Steicke leads out with a bet from the small blind, making it 6,000 to go. Juanda then moved all in over the top of Steicke's bet for a total of 28,000 and Steicke laid it down.
It’s a long way from the sleepy town of Murray Bridge, about an hour east of the South Australian capital Adelaide to the bright lights of Hong Kong, but it’s proven a highly successful step for this 45-year-old trader.
A lifelong poker player, it was not until news of the PokerStars.net APPT reached him that he decided to sharpen up his skills and try his luck at the Walker-hill Casino in South Korea at the APPT Seoul main event back in September. He earned a spot in the last eight of the $15,000 APPT Macau High Roller Event (and a minimum payout of $US27,648) the hard way. With 10 players to go, he was the short stack but made a set of 10s against fellow Australian Gary Benson to kick-start his run to the line.
Scott Numoto has the button in seat 2 and open shoves all in for a total of 53,000. Next to act is Emad Tahtouh in the small blind, who re-raises to 130,000, prompting Bo Sehlstedt to let go of his big blind.
Tahtouh:
Numoto:
Flop:
Turn:
River:
Emad Tahtouh takes down the pot with two pair, kings and tens, eliminating Numoto from the tournament in 7th place.
After the hand, Emad stacked up 416,000 in chips, increasing his distant lead over the rest of the field.
It’s only fitting that the $15,000 APPT Macau High Roller Event has a local representative at the final table, and that man is Tony Ng. A 20-year veteran of the game, he lived for a time in California where he played semi-professionally (mainly at the Bay 101 Casino in San Jose, also the home casino of Scott Numoto).
Now back living in Hong Kong, the father of five prefers cash games but could not resist the lure of the ferry trip from his home to the Grand Waldo Hotel and Casino in Macau to try his luck in the first PokerStars.net APPT Macau: Asian Poker Open. Despite limited tournament experience (he won a $1000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event at the LA Poker Classic way back in 1992), he is assured home town support at the televised final table.